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KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Jimmie Johnson has six Sprint Cup titles and won 73 of his 482 starts. With a victory on Saturday at Kansas Speedway he pulled within three of the late Dale Earnhardt for seventh on the all-time series list. Simply put, he defines greatness for his generation of NASCAR driver.

But that doesn't have much to do with this Sprint Cup season. And though Johnson now leads the series with three wins in 11 events, Kevin Harvick, the runner-up on Saturday, remains the standard by which this season is so far judged.

Still, Johnson has one more win and just one fewer top-5s (7). Harvick has two more top-10s (10) but led a massive 1,006 laps to Johnson's 364. And the Stewart-Haas Racing driver has a marked statistical edge in qualifying, on average 8.4 to Johnson's 16.4. Johnson had to come from 19th position on Saturday.

"I still think he's the car to beat right now," Johnson said. "I mean, he qualifies better than we do. We're finding ways to win races, but I just think that they have a bit more control of their own destiny right now."

Johnson theoretically has a chance to wrest some control over the next two weeks with the series moving to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the All-Star Race and the May 24 Coca-Cola 600. In 27 starts at the 1.5-mile track at NASCAR's epicenter, Johnson has seven wins – including a win from the pole in NASCAR's longest race last spring -- 13 top-5s and 17 top-10s.

Then again, Harvick is no underachiever there either, with three wins – all since 2011, including the Chase for the Sprint Cup race last fall – five top-5s and 11 top-10s in 28 starts.

Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers became the current benchmark with their weekly application of speed last season, even before a torrid Chase run in which they won three of the last six races – including the final two -- as Harvick claimed his first title at NASCAR's highest level.

Matt McCall, crew chief for Ganassi Racing's Jamie McMurray, said their peers grope for ways to keep up with the No. 4 Chevrolet program because it has "everything working in every area."

"A bad week for them is running second," he told said.

But there are areas in which Johnson's team surpasses them, said his crew chief, Chad Knaus.

"I think we execute better than they do consistently," he said, "but as far as having all that raw speed, I think they've got us beat on that right now. So we're working diligently on that right now to try to figure out how we can get a little bit more speed out of the 48 car. I wouldn't say it's always the 4, but we aren't used to not being as fast as we need to be, and we're about a couple tenths off every week from where we want to be."

An offseason of mechanical improvements "closed the gap," Johnson said, but "we've still got a little bit of work to do."

Johnson was therefore extremely pleased to win on Saturday with the help of a bold strategy play – skipping a late pit stop to assume the lead when Harvick ceded the front for right-side tires and fuel – and the ability to fend him off on old tires in the final six laps. The inability to close in the final laps didn't seem to faze Harvick or his assessment of his team's comparison with Johnson's.

"He wasn't that strong," Harvick said. "He was just trying to run right in front of our car, so for those first few laps when you're pushing like that it really takes the air off the front of the car and it gets the chatter in the front end and it snaps around. But that was the strategy that they took, and it worked out for them."